So many Errol Flynn movies have played on TCM that they owed him a decent doco and they've risen to the occasion. This is a really excellent overview of the actor's life, it's main flaw for me being not a real flaw - it's not long enough. I wanted a ten hour version!
A couple of great coups, led by interviews with Olivia de Havilland (like an elegant grandma with a touch of sauce to her personality - she confirms her crush on him, great story about teasing him to arousement during Robin Hood, says his main problem was he got away with too much), Deidre Flynn (who looks like a prison warden - a lot like her dad), and Patrice Wymore (looking like Lauren Bacall, she still seems to have a lot of affection for him), plus never seen before footage of William Tell (not a lost classic but I think it would have been entertaining); there's also 1977 footage of Nora Eddington (she talks about his drug addiction) and David Niven (who talks about what a prick Flynn could be - this doco goes easy on Flynn but it's good to have hints).
Various actors offer their views on Errol - I wasn't that interested in Burt Reynolds and Joanne Woodward, but loved Richard Dreyfuss - of course a pudgy Jew like Dreyfuss would want to be Errol Flynn more than anyone, but Dreyfuss really goes into bat for Errol as an actor (eg the romantic dialogue but also Too Much Too Soon). We see vision from his television work in the 50s, his random projects eg on Cuba. They acknowledge Erben was a Nazi but dispute Errol was - in showing an article on Charles Higham's book, Higham's name is blanked out. Exellent doco, all Flynn fans will like it, and even non Flynn fans.
No comments:
Post a Comment